ls -a doesn't show the file that exists
 

Hi,
we have installed vignette software on the linux box and would like to uninstall it. To uninstall it we need to delete one file named vpd.properties. When we used locate vpd.properties, the file is found in 2 places. But when we used the ls -a in those locations the file is not seen. basically we want to remove that file. If we do rm vpd.properties, this also doesn't work.
Also when we used find -H vpd.properties the file is not found. What is wrong here. I am sure the file vpd.properties will be added to file system as part of vignette. Can anyone suggest what could be wrong here.

We logged in as root user to remove this file.

Installation is done twice using root and vignette user ids. Thats why file is located in 2 places.

Regards,
Pratap

Hi,

Is the database that locate uses up-to-date? Use updatedb (probably as rootuser, but that depends on how things are setup) to refresh/update the database.

Another way of looking for this file would be (as root):

cd /
find . -iname "vpd.properties"

Hope this helps.

Are you sure its not already deleted and just waiting for a process to release it? Do an lsof | grep "vpd.properties"

As druuna implies, the locate/slocate/mlocate database is not "live". It is refreshed usually once a day via a cron job, so it doesn't necessarily reflect the status of your file system. If the file is not there, don't worry. Just do run updatedb and locate should stop reporting that matches.